Paramedic moonlighting as a master craftsman from his Washburn basement
BY RALPH MANCINI
EDITOR
As the son of a car salesman and an artistically-oriented mother growing up in Bismarck about 20 years ago, Keith Hapip Jr. could have never imagined how the basic skills he acquired as a youngster would help set him up as the owner/operator of two burgeoning wood manufacturing businesses.
It wasn’t until Hapip was well into his 20s — after majoring in psychology at NDSU — that the future woodworker experienced a personal awakening to pursue a career in the trades while working for his stepfather, a web and graphics designer.
And while the enterprising twentysomething didn’t allow his dreams to deter him from earning his paramedic degree from the North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton, he was on the verge of encountering another major milestone.
